This book, which I bequeathed to be published after my death, includes a translation, as faithful as possible, of the group of scrolls that were discovered ten years ago in the archaeological ruins located to the northwest of the Syrian city of Aleppo... We have received the ancient Syriac writings on them in good condition, which we rarely find. Like it, although it was written in the first half of the fifth century A.D.... It is preserved in a tightly closed wooden box, in which the monk of Egyptian origin Heba deposited what he wrote of a strange biography and an unintentional chronicle of the disturbing facts of his life, and the vicissitudes of his turbulent time..."
Youssef Zaidan is a writer and researcher specializing in Arab heritage and manuscripts. He was born in Sohag, southern Egypt, in 1958. He has written many books and scientific research on Islamic thought, mysticism, and the history of medicine and science among the Arabs. Cataloging libraries has approached fifty books and eighty papers. This is his second novel.